Chocoholics delight - Ireland set to get its second chocolate museum on Merrion Square

Merrion Square in Dublin is set to be home to the capital city’s second chocolate museum.
The Herald reports that Rycon Ltd will be bringing the Chocolate Museum to Merrion Square’s oldest building, The Apothecary Building, and is set to open next year.

The new chocolate museum will be competing with Butler’s Chocolate Experience, which is at Butler’s factory in Coolock, also in Dublin.

Marketing manager for Butler’s Chocolate Experience, Rycon’s new museum’s main competitors, Kathy Smyth said: "The Chocolate Experience tour of the factory and chocolate museum has been very successful. Ireland is a nation of chocolate lovers."

Michael Ryan is optimistic about Rycon’s new museum’s location: "Merrion Square has a lot of tourists, so we're hoping they will visit it. I think it will be a great experience."

The new museum is hoping to attract families and children, primarily.

“Kids might not be very enthusiastic about spending an hour in the National Gallery,” said Ryan, “but the promise of a hot chocolate in the chocolate museum afterwards might help convince them."

Discussing what shape the museum will take, Ryan said "There will be a history of chocolate from the Aztecs until modern day. It will have an interactive section where kids can make and decorate their own chocolates.”

"And we will display and sell artisan chocolates from around Ireland," he added.

Ryan said that he has visited a number of chocolate museums around Europe and will be drawing inspiration from his visits: "It will be a mix and match of what I've seen but it will have its own charm too."